


The Strength of the Pack

by Conversity



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: AU on many levels, Bullying, Family Fluff, Feelings are confusing when your Vulcan, Fluff and Angst, Friendship/Love, Hurt Spock, Multi, Protective Jim, Spock is sent to Earth as a Child, Vulcan Kisses, outcast
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-26 19:15:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7586557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Conversity/pseuds/Conversity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Earth becomes Spock's only home as he is forced to conquer his human biology before he may return to Vulcan. But once he meets Jim Kirk and the rest of the Enterprise crew, he must choose between going home and enlisting in Starfleet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Strength of the Pack

**Author's Note:**

> I mostly got the idea from the Jungle Book (2016) and must admit that Amanda's lines are taken word for word at some places from the movie because Raksha and Amanda have that fierce love for their children and it seemed extremely appropriate. 
> 
> Each chapter will have a quote or line from different movies and each time I will credit it. :)  
> I hope you guys keep reading! Tell me what you'd like to see in later chapters!

Spock doesn’t understand the little pearls of water on his mother’s cheeks, tiny and crystal-like as she wipes her glassy eyes. He’s not tall enough to meet her forward gaze, so he grasps his hands in the silk folds of her robe at her hip and tugs gently. 

“Mother?” He implores, eyebrows drawing together as she ignores him. When he looks harder he notices more water streaks, her face sorrowful and reddened with what he has heard his father call ‘crying’. 

‘So strange. So human.’ Are his thoughts as he feels at his own face, fingers touching the dry specks of his tear ducts. 

The High Council sits before them in a half circle, wizened and sage, like hard marble statues with their pitiless eyes and blank faces. Amanda is not Vulcan in the slightest, no matter how she wraps her warm human body in the traditional garb or how smooth her accent, but Spock is still startled when she raises her voice to them, lividly scathing. 

“You can’t take him! I won’t let you, he’s my son!” 

“There is nothing which can be done. Living here has proven detrimental on his mind and his inability to properly shield is affecting the classmates around him. Your husband had good merit in trying to acquiesce him to the Vulcan lifestyle but he simply is not Vulcan-“

Spock unexpectedly feels his mother’s arms sweep around his body, setting his weight on her hip. “Look at him and dare tell me he is not Vulcan!” Her voice is bitter, almost a growl, like when I’Chaya warns off strangers, and yet her embrace is soft. 

The councilmen don’t say anything in retaliation, their silence lurid with their displeasure at Amanda’s humanness. Sarek stands from his chair on the board, hands behind his back, and approaches his wife slowly, as if she will bite. At this point, Spock thinks she might. 

“Amanda, please, see reason. Spock needs something which cannot be cultivated here on Vulcan.” 

“No-“

Sarek reaches for his wife then, palms out in a Vulcan show of submission, something ancient and forgotten to all but historians like Amanda. She hesitates to accept her husband, and instead clutches Spock closer, as if Sarek might snatch him. Indulgently, Sarek skims his fingertips across the thin skin of her hands where Amanda embraces their son, and is soothed when she melts with the grief he gives off in cold waves. At least she knows he too is affected by the choice. 

“Adun, I beg of you,” she whispers into the soft place of Sarek’s throat, beseeching him in the language of the culture which would cast out her son. But he has already crossed a boundary with such a display and draws away with one last swipe of fingers over Spock’s brow, broadcasting a tremor of peace over their distressed bond. 

“This is the only way he will be safe,” Sarek promises, holding her gaze so she understands that, even if it breaks her heart, this must be done. Because Sarek can easily negotiate peace with hostile factions and make decisions which would affect thousands and yet he could not bond Spock to a Vulcan child which will no doubt grow to resent him, could not send Spock into the desert for his Kahs-wan when he comes of age, could not stand to see Amanda mourn every time Spock shed another piece of his humanity. 

Spock feels his mother’s lips tremble as she kisses his brow, sparking the meld point in his temple, and clutches to her as she sets him down on the floor. Her hands cup his jaw, thumbs caressing his cheeks, but her eyes linger on the upsweep of his eyebrows, the tiny points of his ears, the green flush that colors his pallor. When he focuses really hard, Spock is able to discern her surface thoughts and understands that she is trying to memorize him as he appears now, the baby she has born into this world, the boy she must release to another. 

After a long moment, Amanda finally locks eyes with him, more determined than he’s ever seen her. 

“Never forget this,” her fingers tighten, her voice cracks, “you’re mine. Mine to me. And no matter where you go, or what they might call you…” she searches his face again, taking in the Vulcan traits which make him alien and yet not Vulcan enough to stay here, “You will always be my son.” 

Spock nods his understanding into her shoulder as she hugs him one last time, though he doesn’t understand why he would ever cease to be kin to her, and then Sarek is pulling them apart, leading Spock toward the Council. 

“Let it be known that Spock will return when he has found balance within himself. This is not an exile but a sabbatical taken to strengthen his Vulcan resolve.”

“Dually noted,” agreed the High Priest and with thrice rapped gavel, it was decided. 

Spock would be sent to Earth.


End file.
